2 comments:

I lived in St. Louis and worked in East St. Louis for 1 a year in 1999. Both are great music towns. I was especially impressed by Leo Chears, the "man in the red vest." He sure knew the music and his radio program was a wonderful source of music discovery. Someone I know is doing an article on jazz deejays and he is seeking airchecks. Do you know where we can find airchecks by Leo?

Thanks for commenting, David. Regarding airchecks of Leo Chears, I'd suggest getting in touch with Greg Conroy, station manager at WSIE, the public radio station affiliated with Sourthern Illinois University in Edwardsville. Their wesbite is http://www.wsie.com/.

That's the last station at which Chears worked before he died; perhaps they may have saved some recordings of his broadcasts. I believe they also aired a tribute to him after his death, though I don't know if was archived.

Most of the other commercial stations where Chears worked years ago have changed ownership and formats multiple times, and are unlikely to have recorded or saved any of his work.

Also, I'd suggest checking in with Frank Absher, who runs a site about St. Louis radio history at http://www.stlradio.com/. Frank is a longtime veteran of the local radio business who was around when Chears was active. He has a number of airchecks of St. Louis radio and TV personalities posted online at his site, and while there currently are none of Leo Chears that I can find, it's possible he may have something in his files that just hasn't been posted yet.

You also might want to check with Don Wolff, longtime St. Louis jazz broadcaster and jazz historian, who was a contemporary of Chears'. He can be contacted through his website at http://www.donwolff.com/.